Man City look to Real Madrid example to salvage dismal season

Manchester City need look no further than their perennial Champions League opponents Real Madrid for hope that Europe can still be conquered in the midst of a dire domestic season.

The sides meet in the Champions League for the fourth consecutive season, but this time much earlier in the competition in large part due to City’s struggles.

Pep Guardiola’s men escaped an embarrassing early exit in the final 45 minutes of the extended eight-game group phase to sneak into the next round in 22nd place of the 36-team table.

City’s only victories in the competition this season have come against Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague and Club Brugge.

In between times they were comfortably beaten by Sporting Lisbon and Juventus, blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 at home to Feyenoord and conceded four times in the final 35 minutes at Paris Saint-Germain.

An unprecedented four-year run as English champions is also realistically coming to an end. A 5-1 humbling at the hands of Arsenal in their last Premier League game left City 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool and in a battle just to reach the Champions League next season.

So used to relentless success during a glittering managerial career, Guardiola has appeared powerless to halt a drastic decline.

 'Old and weak'

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has repeatedly labelled his side "fragile" and "old", while he admitted after the signing of Nico Gonzalez on the final day of the transfer window that they have been "weak" in midfield without the injured Rodri for most of the season.

Guardiola said last month he was "a little bit scared to play these transitional games" due to City's lack of physicality.

The spectre of a Madrid front four boasting an in-form Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham is enough to give the City boss nightmares.

Rodri will miss the tie despite being retained in City's Champions League squad in the hope he could return from an ACL tear before the end of the season.

But three new signings Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Gonzalez are free to face the Spanish champions, while City are further boosted by the return from injury of Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku.

Madrid have their own injury troubles without defenders Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger.

Real also lost three times in the league phase themselves to Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool to miss out on a top-eight finish that would have secured direct entry to the last 16.

But the 15-time winners are the masters at peaking when it matters in the Champions League.

In two of the three ties between the sides in the past three years, Madrid began as underdogs, were largely outplayed and yet still progressed at City's expense.

"It has become a game that you see every year, whether that is in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and this year so early. So it is a big game and a fresh start for us," said City defender Rico Lewis.

Between 1966 and 2018, Madrid lifted the European Cup or Champions League eight times despite only once winning La Liga in the same season.

That is the example City now have to follow to try and turn a miserable season into a memorable one.